Raleigh-Durham

Locally based developer Dominion Realty Partners has joined Charter Square, LLC and the City of Raleigh to develop a speculative office project in the heart of the city’s downtown.
Construction on the first of the two Charter Square buildings in the 400 block of Fayetteville Street is expected to begin this fall and take about a year to complete. At 215 feet, the structure will be slightly taller than the Marriott City Center Hotel across the street.

The Historic Preservation Commission has approved the construction of a 26-story mixed-use building in the heart of downtown Durham. According to the NewsObserver, the proposed “City Center” high-rise will include 25,000 square feet of ground floor retail; 70,000 square feet of offices; and 133 luxury apartments on the upper 21 floors.
Austin Lawrence Partners of Colorado is developing the project, which will be located inside the city’s historic central business district, at the former Woolworth’s site between Parrish and Main streets. Last November, the company purchased the site, along with four adjacent buildings which will be incorporated in the new development. Greenfire Development sold the properties for $3 million.

In its first foray outside Louisiana, Baton Rouge-based Level Homes is planning to develop three communities totaling 230 single-family homes in Apex, Cary and Durham. According to the Triangle Business Journal, the company has recently opened a new regional office in downtown Raleigh to market its expansion.
In Apex, Level Homes is developing the Ellington Place community comprised of 52 home lots. The company acquired the 14-acre site in October for $2.04 million and plans to open a model home here this April, which would be the Triangle’s first. Prices are expected to start at $250,000s.

Continental Capital Management of Virginia Beach, Va. has recently purchased a three-story, 61,412-square-foot office building in West Raleigh. According to the Triangle Business Journal, shopping mall operator CBL & Associates Properties sold the asset for $8.3 million.
At the time of sale, the building at 1500 Sunday Drive within Trinity Corporate Park was 97 percent leased. Its tenants include the Hughes, Pittman & Gupton accounting firm, First Point Management Resources and RCI. The property was developed in 2000 and has a tax value of $9.2 million.
Scott Adams, Ben Kilgore and Brian Carr of CBRE-Raleigh brokered the transaction on behalf of the seller. The firm will also manage the building and handle leasing services, the newspaper reports.

Residents at the new Water Garden Village community in northwest Raleigh can breathe easy on the entire 11-acre property. According to WRAL, the recently opened 100 percent smoke-free apartment complex has been quite successful, leasing within nearly a month of opening.
Located at 8441 Mount Valley Lane, the 60-unit community has been developed by nonprofit DHIC. The newspaper reports that the property’s non-smoking policy extends beyond apartment walls and includes the fitness center, the clubhouse, the playground and even the laundry facilities.
“We were concerned that it might even limit our ability to rent the apartments,” DHIC President Gregg Warren said in regard with the smoking restriction.

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has purchased five multi-family properties in the Triangle region, as part of its $414 million deal to acquire a total of 19 apartment communities in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Babcock & Brown Residential, the seller of the 4,892-unit portfolio was advised by Robert W. Baird & Co.
According to the Triangle Business Journal, the assets located in the Triangle accounted for a combined $108 million, or $76,900 per unit.
The newspaper reports that the 462-unit Oak Hollow property in Cary sold for $32.6 million, while the 144-unit Bridges at Chapel Hill in Carrboro sold for $11.6 million. The region’s other three communities that were included in the sale are located in Durham: the 346-unit Bridges at Wind River (pictured), which sold for $32.6 million, the 264-unit Woods Edge, which sold for $18.7 million, and the 192-unit Bridges at South Point, which sold for $12.76 million.

On January 31, a joint venture partnership between the Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust Duke Realty Corp. and the Raleigh-based real estate development firm Kane Realty Corp. sold the prestigious 17-story Captrust Tower in the city’s North Hills area. KBS Realty Advisors of Newport Beach, California acquired the approximately 300,000-square-foot property for $98.4 million, or nearly $326 per square foot.
Developed in 2009, the LEED Gold-certified high-rise at 4208 Six Forks Road offers 275,630 square feet of office space, 26,813 square feet of retail space and a six-level parking deck. The property is 95 percent leased to 18 companies, including Captrust Financial Advisors, the American Board of Anesthesiology, CBRE, Regus, RBC Capital Markets, as well as other national and regional tenants.